Honeymoon

After many months of planning, late nights, stressing over tiny details, and ignoring big ones until far too late in the process... I am officially a married man!

As spectacular as our wedding was (when I wasn't feeling too nauseous to enjoy myself, that is), it's our honeymoon in Vietnam that I'll be focusing on with this one. After all, what photographer would have time to take photos at their own wedding?

Ho Chi Minh City

I have never been anywhere in my life that felt more overwhelming than our first stop in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC from here on out). We have stayed in Myeongdong, we have braved Shibuya on a Sunday, but nothing compares to how I felt trying to cross the lanes and lanes of high speed traffic on foot. It's a miracle that we didn't see any car accidents!

Our stay at the Silverland Ben Thanh was beautiful (pictured above are the flowers that they gave us to celebrate our honeymoon), but the surrounding area was a little more intense than I expected. One side was lanes and lanes of high speed traffic, and the other was a feeling of overflow from the Ben Thanh markets. I felt bad saying no to every street vendor who approached me, but I really didn't need any vapes. Hopefully, I can shed these leftover feelings from a sheltered upbringing before my next ever-so-slightly confronting trip overseas.

It feels ridiculous saying this, but I had one of the best pizzas of my entire life in HCMC. The hype for Pizza 4P's is not overblown at all. We had a half 'n' half with beef bulgogi on one side (good, but not mind-blowing - maybe a little too subtle?), and Margherita with pepperoni on the other (truly incredible). I paired it with a house-made kombucha, which was a really random choice, but also a winner. The restaurant itself was also beautiful - hopefully the Google Maps listing will show that well, because I forgot to take any pictures (or, more accurately, felt too awkward to).

At this point, my two photographic fixations had me in their clutches - motorbikes, and flags. The motorbikes caught my eye because the sheer volume of them was novel, and the flags were always a beautiful contrasting element to the faded façades of the weather-worn buildings. It feels funny to highlight so much nationalism in my photography when I'm typically so allergic to flags at home - maybe I'd feel different if ours wasn't so tied to our colonial past, or if it was at least a little less ugly.

Day two, and I was finally starting to find my groove in HCMC. We had our first egg coffee - fantastic, no notes, cannot wait to start making my own at home - walked through Tao Dan Park, and delved deep into the horrors of the Vietnam War. What's more romantic than learning about Agent Orange with your wife?

If you're ever in HCMC and you need to decide between Bếp Cuốn (where the pictured round platter is from) and Bếp Mẹ Ỉn, choose the former. We did both in the same day because I pushed for more Vietnamese food, and Bếp Cuốn was fantastic. By comparison, Bếp Mẹ Ỉn was good, but not great.

Hanoi

In Hanoi, we managed to get one whole day of sun - I think this may have been our last one for the trip. Of course, the downside of a beautiful day in Vietnam is the heat. Combine that with the increased amount of walking we had to do (I wanted to go to a camera shop...), and it snowballed into a difficult day. At the very least, I got my obligatory flag photos!

Like the War Remnants museum, the decommissioned prison in Hanoi was haunting. The only photo I took was the third one in the gallery above, because I liked the clear separation in light across the ground, and because I don't think taking photos in historic exhibits is ever really worth the crippling embarrassment.

After visiting The X Cameras Hanoi (a very cute store, but no winners), we turned in for the day, and were so run down by the heat that we forgot to head back out for the evening! If it were any other holiday, I'd be kicking myself over an afternoon wasted. Fortunately, though, a honeymoon is not just a holiday - it's a celebration of love, and a chance to rest before you (hopefully) spend the rest of your lives together. Time together with your loved ones is never time wasted.

The next day was not a shooter's paradise. We had a nice sleep in, went to a coffee-making workshop (very light on photos, as I'm just not the sort of person to interrupt an activity for a shot), then avoided the rain for the rest of the day. I know there's still lots to see when the weather is middling, but I was just so worn out. We hadn't had a proper rest since well before the wedding, and we were both struggling to find the motivation to do much. If I could do this all over again, I think I would've started with our next destination, instead of (basically) finishing with it.

Not pictured here is our last morning in Hanoi, as it was nothing but torrential rain. We had a heroic Grab driver who kept us safe on our journey to the airport, and I didn't want to risk distracting him with the clunk of a shutter. The rain parted a little by the time we reached our gate, but the clouds did not recede.

Phú Quốc

Fortunately, Hanoi's inclement weather did not follow us to the island paradise of Phú Quốc. This was the last day that the sunset wasn't smothered by grey, but it was a beautiful start to the best part of the trip.

Amy and I are rarely resort people. When we're on holiday, we tend to try and maximise our days - after all, when will you be back to wherever you are? Resorts are antithetical to this mentality. And yet, knowing that we'd be cooked from the wedding, we decided to incorporate rest and relaxation into our honeymoon. We booked a villa at Melia Vinpearl Phú Quốc and chilled for three days straight.

As someone who usually likes to keep busy, having mandatory resting time was beautiful. Doing very little is great when you've been doing a lot. This is the same joy that I typically feel when I go camping with my wife's family at Easter, and a pleasure that I've only been able to experience since starting full time work in 2020. This enforced rest was also essential for our last stop of the trip...

Ho Chi Minh City, again

With rest and recovery on our side, I was overjoyed to be returning to HCMC. Our new hotel's surrounding area, while being in the same district as the last hotel, was instantly more pleasant to explore at night, and I took the opportunity to grab a few shots while waiting for our dinner from Bánh Mì Huynh Hoa (easily the best bánh mì that I've had in my life, with generous lashings of pâté, a rainbow of deli meats, and a bun the size of my forearm).

On our last days, while photography was once again a little light (very shopping and café-forward), it felt great to get back out and see HCMC. My tolerance for the heat, developed over many aircon-less Australian summers, had finally re-emerged after its winter hibernation. Consecutive nights of getting enough sleep (unheard of for me in the past few years) had culminated in a new sense of vim and vigour. Crossing the road through Vietnam's ceaseless traffic, previously a daunting experience, was now... still quite daunting, but at least a little more doable! These were the days where the reality of visiting Vietnam finally caught up to my expectations. My fears that surfaced in Hanoi of a disappointing trip had evaporated in Phú Quốc, and never dared to show their face once it was evident that our return to HCMC was a success.

While I was excited to fly home and start the next chapter of my life, it felt far too soon. Like any holiday, going to a country for a fortnight gives you little more than a glimpse of what it's truly like, especially when you don't push yourself to eke every opportunity out of every second. There is so much more Vietnam for us to see - due to fears of inclement weather, we didn't set foot in Central Vietnam, and missed out on cities like Da Nang and Hue as a result.

There are countless places that I would like to revisit, but could not justify the time or money for while there are so many other countries to see. Vietnam is not one of those places. I will undoubtedly be back for seconds.

What I'm listening to: "Getting Killed" - Geese (still unbelievably addicted to "Taxes")
What I'm reading: ”The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam” - Christopher Goscha
What I'm playing: Balatro (my best man called Balatro the perfect plane game, and I cannot agree more - our entire flight from Phú Quốc to HCMC went by so fast because I was flicking those stupid little cards around)